Protege Tuning style, where are we going? Quasi Rant
 

Ok, the Pro's in all their forms are fun stylish lil cars....but why o why do we have such a stagnant tuning scene when the VW crowd and even the Focus groups have HUGE support from the aftermarket....no love for the Zoom Zoom?
I surf and look and think and try to find new ways to adapt other stuff for our cars to bring some creativity and excitment into our corner of automobilia.....we could try the smoothed out slammed down euro look, the OEM plus look, the tired out and over played race car look, etc
Everyone so far has mostly the same things, tailights, pipes, rollers and springs...whooptie freakin do....
I want to see creativity, I want to see something new and different I want to see people making their cars their own..... :argue:


Sorry...had to rant though, comming from the VW scene into this is a real shocker (and no I dont mean two in the...never mind) :tit:
Come on folks, what do YOU want to do to your car, what products do YOU want to see....we have a huge amount of talent on this bored and we can make it happen....or we can blend in like all the others and fall into silent oblivion... :barf:

I for one will be unleashing some new mods over the next few months as my cretaivity (and frustration) has piqued.....

Get up and mod damnit...you dont have to spend lots of cash to do it

take a deep breath...it's gonna be alright!

hahaha, you wanna finance my supercharger kit?!?! With about another $1100 I could hae it finished.

I like the very clean, no emblem look myself. I'm a subscriber to the philosophy that less is more. I LOVE the P5. I waited for the turbo-5 before settling for the msp. I ended back up with the 5 though.

I think mazda kinda did us in. they dont sell a lot of cars where as VW and especially ford does. Focus blew the tuning market on its ear. That's a global car with a LOT of units sold. Protege isn't that hot a seller. I think the new mazda3 will be HUGE though. It's selling like hotcakes and with platform sharing parts will/should be interchangeable. I want to get my hands on a new 2.3S so I can make a supercharger for it.

I dont know about original, but my plans still consist of MP3 rear skirt, EVO hood, Mp3 sways, Tokico Blues, and pretty much every suspension piece from GT spec...She'll be an undepowered track monster,lol

macdaddy, thats where I am right now, I just want to switch springs to higher rates to quell that last bit of roll I have..
IM torn as I dont feel any of the body kits do our cars justice, nor am I about to pay the $$ to swap a P5/MSP bumper on...I have a few aero Ideas I need to validate and see how they look and motor stuff....well that requires money.
IM just frustrated and weeding the the VWVortex doesnt help...I miss my VR6 Jetta

i like the WW kit but it's a hair over-done for my taste.

I'm really just a big fan of the MS kit...looks so good.

I actually like the WW rear wing, but there is nothing else that really can pull it off except the MSP kit.....the WW kit as a whole has a HUGE image to it, but our cars aren't quick enought to pull it off...IM all go and some show.... not vice versa...for me to bolt something onto my car it has to make it faster, corner better or be lighter....From what I can tell so far, rear wings onour cars are for looks, despite what mazda says.....unless your going with a Speed Touring style wing....(cough ricey)....

I also choose function over form when it comes to modifications. That's why I have NO problems pulling my AC for the supercharger.

I just can't believe no'ones mass produced aftermarket cams for the fs-de. With as many engines (across multiple vehicles) as the fs is you'd think someone would've wanted to tap that market. I guess it's just better to get cams made for YOUR vehicle, not a generic grind.

Either way, I'm hoping the supercharger kit will sell at least 5 units so there will be a few people able to talk about its possibilities. With some sort of actual funding this kit would be done by now. It's just difficult for me to allocate any more of my personal money into this project until my raise.


sorry, didn't mean to turn this into another "me" thread. Just wanted to explain what this modder was going through.

I feel ya on that one....I want your SC to happen so I can get it, I also need a raise..
Im finishing my aluminum heat shield tonight and should have install pics up by sat or next monday. Then my intake sys is almost complete...still thinking about an ebay SRI though, it'd work wonders with my existing mods....
IM working on a straight pipe exhaust using the stock resonated center section and a moded axle back...
have a few lighting ideas Im working on and a BUNCH of aero mods that are junkyard simple..
I've removed 15lbs of extra shit from the car, need to get a new civic battery to drop some more weight and free up space (they are MUCH smaller in size)
I'd like to get TEIN S tech springs as their rates are better than the Eibachs I have now and the lowering would br great looking...
i'd love to toally debadge the rear of the car, but need to do paint work to accomplish it...not worth it.
Ideally I could get a set of Watanabe RS or Panasports to rock on the car (15x7 thankyou) and most of the GT Spec chassis goodies, my car creaks as is....damn I need to find a money tree

sounds good!

my plans are for a full supercharged motor build but I have to keep everything as stock as possible so my dyno numbers represent what anyone else will be able to get. I plan on using a stock mazdaspeed trany, spec stage 2 clutch, extrude hone P&P head and intake manifold sans VICS, custom cam grinds, forged internals running 8.8:1 CR, Powerdyne intercooled supercharger at 9psi, (prefer) AEM stand alone EMS, and an intercooler sprayer.

not a bad way to spend about $7K!

IF the SC never happens Im gonna go NA, stand alone, cams, up the CR, AWR header, 2.5 cat back, P&P the head,balance and blueprint, cutoms intake manifold with individual TB's, bigger valves etc...about 10g of motor work.....eeek! But she'll scream at ya

you're going to wait until a supercharger kit comes out THEN go NA?? hahaha

no......is said "IF the SC never happens"
goober... :P

damn, I've got to slow down when I read!

there are pleanty of bad ass protege's around, take a look at last years protegefest pics and you'll see